


A City for Fish

by undercat



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, how to become an atheist in the land of the gods, past major character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 03:33:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17113658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undercat/pseuds/undercat
Summary: Love not too well the work of thy hands.In Mandos, Turgon reflects.





	A City for Fish

In Námo's grim halls, Turgon thought of Feanor.

He hated Feanor still, ah, how he  _hated,_ with all the intensity of the undimmed, bodiless soul. His half-uncle had killed Elenwe as surely as if he had pushed her into the water himself, had blackened the skin on Idril’s feet, had made starved Aredhel’s skin stretch over the bones of her face like one dead and desiccated.

Turgon thought of Losgar, and he understood now with the clarity of the dead the evil Feanor had done. He had not just murdered Elenwe. He had burnt a Great Work, the fair swanships of the Teleri. They had been beautiful; Feanor had taken that beauty from the world; it was lost forever. (Gondolin’s beauty was lost forever.)

And Feanor thought he knew of loss! What did he know – the death of a father, a mother? Turgon had lost a father too, a wife and a sister, and more still, for Turgon’s own Great Work had been destroyed.  _If Gondolin lived and I did not, I would be happy._  The Silmarils still lived: surely Feanor was happy. (He hated Feanor.)

Morgoth had stolen the Silmarils, but he had not destroyed them, not as Feanor destroyed the ships, not as Morgoth destroyed Gondolin. (And Turgon hated Feanor, for the Silmarils lived and his city did not.)

But the dead imprisoned in Mandos could not lie, not even to themselves, and Turgon could no longer say that he did not understand Feanor. A Vala had told Turgon to abandon his city to ruin and the ravages of time, as a Vala had told Feanor to break his gems: Feanor had refused. Turgon would have done the same. Turgon  _had_  done the same. (Gondolin was still lost, buried by the sea.)

Morgoth had burnt his city, beloved, in fire, but Ulmo had drowned it in water. (He hated Morgoth, and he hated Ulmo.)

Feanor hated the Valar, and Turgon of Gondolin knew why, for he hated too.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.


End file.
